Plastic particles float like plankton, making up a huge proportion of the diet of filter feeders – from baleen whales to small fish. The possible impact on marine life is huge. What floats and what sinks matters – this engaging issue is used to add context to a unit on density and buoyancy.

Battling the young to think about where information comes from, giving credit and figuring out if it’s credible. They hate it, I hated it, the tedium of looking up references blah, blah, and yet, in the end, a life and death of democracy skill.

The scene of basically a disaster the first time I did it, apples being tossed and impaled on pencils, yelling ‘sit down and shut up!’. This time, much, much better. Why? Here’s what worked much better this year, with pics and student sheet.

“Student centered classrooom” What does that really mean? It’s hard to move off the stage and let the kids at it, but so much better to engage them, respect them and frankly, give me a little break from bossing everyone around. Being a little pulled back gives them more space to expand, a powerful good thing I’m learning late in life.